Guest Blogger Bob O'Dair: Don't drown daddy...

Our guest blogger today is my other baby brother, Bob! He is a swimmer, a triathlete, an amazing musician, and of course great dad, husband, and brother. He also never fails to make me laugh.

This summer I’ve been training my daughter to drown people. It wasn’t really something I had planned. In fact, I had fully intended to send her to swimming classes, hopefully get her to blow bubbles in the water, then go under completely, then swim 4 x 50 butterfly on 1:10. She’s only 3, but as a former child swimmer who quit when he was 11, I have some expectations. We’ve barely been swimming this year, at least in a real pool. The closest thing to swimming I've done so far is in the small pool we bought for our back yard. We got the pool because a) we all love the water, b) we have a concrete patio on which to place said pool, and c) it's been hotter than Hades (Katie asked me not to swear) here in Austin. Indeed, I can remember about 2 brief rainfalls since March, and the other day my car's thermometer read 109 degrees during evening rush hour. As of this writing, we’re at 54 consecutive days of triple-digit high temperatures. It’s hot. We got the pool.

My only rule is that youngsters wear a flotation of some kind – tube, water wings, or other – since the pool can be up to 3 feet deep. This allows Ruby to swim by herself. Of course that rarely happens, since I’m averse to melting, so I get in and we splash and jump and all, and eventually she just wants to drown me. This is her favorite game - push me underwater and make sure I stay there. "Daddy, I wanna push you underwater." I hesitate at the idea, but honestly it's kind of relaxing, just floating face down in the water and being pushed down until I float back up. I can stay that way for a while, and in toddler time it's an eternity. I realize this might be considered teaching and reinforcing bad habits, but I think our conversations really add clarity:

Me: "You know you can only play that game with daddy, right Ruby?"

Ruby: "Um, Yeah. Daddy, go underwater."

See? She understands. We’re cool.

Today's workout:

4 x 200 (stroke/swim, swim, drill/swim, swim) on :25 r
1 x 100 kick on 2:15
50 kick fast on 1:00
50 kick faster on :50
200 on 3:00
2 x 100 on 1:35
100 fly on 2:00
200 on 2:55
2 x 100 on 1:35
100 back on 2:00
repeat kick set
200 on 2:50
2 x 100 on 1:35
100 breast on 2:05
200 on 2:40
2 x 100 on 1:35
100 choice
2 times thru
50 fast on :50
50 easy